Robert Coleman
Waste management conglomerate, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has touted its achievements in Ghana’s waste management sector.
The Communications Manager of the company, Robert Coleman, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, espoused the company’s achievements which have revolutionized waste management in Ghana.
Mr. Coleman recounted that Ghana’s solid waste management before the inception of Zoomlion in 2006 was a major concern for government.
“Zoomlion, upon realizing this challenge, engaged government through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative to roll out a waste and sanitation module of the National Youth Employment programme.
“This innovation, the first of its kind, witnessed over 40,000 sanitation workers trained by Zoomlion and dispatched to every district of the country to clean,” he revealed.
He mentioned that innovation in logistical support for cleaning public places was modernized over the years to facilitate easy collection of solid waste.
Mr. Coleman added that skip trucks, compaction trucks, among other logistical supports, were also introduced under an initiative called the Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP) which increased the capacity of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to collect the huge quantum of waste.
Ghana’s key challenge to solid waste management over the years has been places of convenience to dump waste collected from households and public places.
When asked about Zoomlion’s intervention in this regard, Mr. Coleman explained that investments had been made accordingly to ensure that people desist from turning available pieces of land into dump sites.
He said the company had extended its expertise in engineered landfill management to managing landfill sites at various locations across the country.
“The company sponsored some of its staff to study abroad and gather expertise in landfill management. Zoomlion, through a World Bank support, has also constructed a state-of-the-art engineered landfill site in Liberia,” he revealed.
The waste management company also has a medical waste treatment facility – the first of its kind in the country – which is treating waste generated by health facilities.
The problem of improper management of liquid waste has deteriorated to the extent that most liquid waste collected from homes end up being dislodged into the sea.
Zoomlion’s intervention in this regard, Mr. Coleman explained, was the establishment of a Sewerage Treatment Plant with biogas and energy generation at Lavender Hill and Adjen Kotoku.
Regarding Zoomlion’s projects towards finding value for waste, the Communications Manager, stated that Zoomlion’s Accra Compost and Recycling Plant is a multipurpose facility, which receives sorts and recycles solid and liquid waste into compost and other useful materials for the agricultural sector.
He added that a similar facility for the same purpose in Kumasi is near completion.
Zoomlion has also established a state-of-the-art educational complex known as the Africa Institute for Sanitation and Waste Management, managed by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
This facility focuses on the development and training of highly qualified human resource to address Africa’s environmental health and sustainable development issues.
“Moving forward, Zoomlion will expand its projects and Ghana will be a good example worth emulating in Africa for best practices in waste management,” Mr. Coleman emphasized.